Photographs and other graphic images found on this Site may (1) carry a copyright notice with respect to images originated and owned by Ron Sterling, (2) to Ron Sterling's best knowledge, be from the public domain and will not carry a copyright notice of any kind, and (3) by purchase or otherwise, be posted on this Site pursuant to permission or a purchase of rights to publish, in which case said photographs or graphic images will carry a notice of such permission or licensing agreement. Even though Ron Sterling has exercised due diligence in posting what he believes in good faith to be photographs or other images from the public domain, if you discover a photograph or image posted on the Site that you reasonably believe is copyrighted or otherwise protected from public domain use, please notify Ron Sterling at 206-784-7842 and said photograph or image will be removed as soon as reasonably possible, but in any event, no later than 20 business days after such notification.

Elements of DearShrink.com™ Web pages are protected by trade dress, trademark, unfair competition, and other laws and may not be copied or imitated in whole or in part, including language, layout, and logos found in the banner areas of each page.

The DearShrink.com Internet Web site ("DearShrink.com," "DearShrink.com site," or "Site") is an online information and communications service provided by DearShrink.com. The content on the DearShrink.com site is presented in summary form, is general in nature, and is provided for informational purposes only. The content is not intended in any way to be a substitute for face-to-face, in-person, professional, medical, psychiatric, psychological or behavioral health care advice. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health care provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical, psychiatric, psychological or behavioral health condition. Neither the content nor any other service offered by or through DearShrink.com or the DearShrink.com site is intended to be relied on for medical, psychiatric, psychological or behavioral health diagnosis or treatment. Never disregard medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on the DearShrink.com site.

The DearShrink.com Internet Web site is funded solely by Ron Sterling, M.D. with his own personal funds or donations made through the secure PayPal Web site. No fee of any kind, whatsoever, is required to be paid nor is charged by Ron Sterling, M.D., or DearShrink.com for the use of this Site. DearShrink.com is a for-profit Web site which generates funding only through donations made to it and fees paid to Ron Sterling, M.D., for services rendered to those who purchase e-mail or telephone information and consultation. It is the mission of DearShrink.com to never utilize advertising of any medical products of any kind for the purpose of generating revenue or otherwise, other than the services of Ron Sterling, M.D.

No contributions of services, materials or advertising revenue of any kind currently supports any part of the operation, maintenance or presence of the Site on the Internet. Except for advertising Dr. Sterling's services, no advertising of any medical or health care related products or services currently exists on the Site. References on the DearShrink.com Site to Windows®, Microsoft®, Internet Explorer®, Macintosh®, Netscape®, Google, Pico Search (sm), ZipLip, VeriSign®, WellMed.com, Healinx.com, or any other products or services of any kind, except for the services of Ron Sterling, M.D., are for the purposes of information or convenience only, and should not be interpreted as an endorsement of any particular product or service. No financial affiliations exist with any of the above-noted entities and no income is generated for Ron Sterling, M.D., or the Site by any visits made from links in this Site to any other site on the Internet or from any other Site on the Internet to DearShrink.com or dearshrink.com.

Unless otherwise noted, all content contained on the Web pages of DearShrink.com is written and posted on the Site by Ron Sterling, M.D. Any content or material on the Site not authored by Ron Sterling, M.D., contains either a bibliographic reference to the source of the material, or an HTML link to the source data or material cited therein, or if it is a question sent to DearShrink.com, it is clearly indicated to be such. For more information about how questions and answers are handled at DearShrink.com and our Privacy Policy, please click here.

PLEASE READ THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF USE CAREFULLY BEFORE USING THIS SITE.

The DearShrink.com Internet Web site ("DearShrink.com," "DearShrink.com site," or "Site") is an online information and communications service provided by DearShrink.com. By accessing and using this site, you signify your agreement to these Terms and Conditions of Use as set forth herein. You must agree to these Terms and Conditions in order to continue to access and use the DearShrink.com site. Please read this document carefully. If you do not agree to all of the Terms and Conditions of this agreement, you may not continue access or use this site.

DearShrink.com reserves the right to modify the terms and conditions of these Terms and Conditions of Use at any time, and such modifications shall be effective immediately upon posting of the modified Terms and Conditions of Use. You agree to review this agreement periodically to be aware of such modifications and your continued access or use of the DearShrink.com Site shall be legal evidence of your conclusive acceptance of the Terms and Conditions of Use as it appears at the time of your access or use.

THE CONTENT ON THE DEARSHRINK.COM SITE IS PRESENTED IN SUMMARY FORM, IS GENERAL IN NATURE, AND IS PROVIDED FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY. THE CONTENT IS NOT INTENDED IN ANY WAY TO BE A SUBSTITUTE FOR FACE-TO-FACE, IN-PERSON, PROFESSIONAL, MEDICAL, PSYCHIATRIC, PSYCHOLOGICAL OR BEHAVIORAL HEALTH CARE ADVICE. ALWAYS SEEK THE ADVICE OF YOUR PHYSICIAN OR OTHER QUALIFIED HEALTH CARE PROVIDER WITH ANY QUESTIONS YOU MAY HAVE REGARDING A MEDICAL, PSYCHIATRIC, PSYCHOLOGICAL OR BEHAVIORAL HEALTH CONDITION. NEITHER THE CONTENT NOR ANY OTHER SERVICE OFFERED BY OR THROUGH DEARSHRINK.COM OR THE DEARSHRINK.COM SITE IS INTENDED TO BE RELIED ON FOR MEDICAL, PSYCHIATRIC, PSYCHOLOGICAL OR BEHAVIORAL HEALTH DIAGNOSIS OR TREATMENT. NEVER DISREGARD MEDICAL ADVICE OR DELAY IN SEEKING IT BECAUSE OF SOMETHING YOU HAVE READ ON THE DEARSHRINK.COM SITE.

DearShrink.com does not recommend or endorse any specific test, products, or procedures that may be mentioned on the Site or that are mentioned in any link provided from DearShrink.com to a Web page or Web site not immediately part of DearShrink.com. Any opinions expressed on the Site are the opinions of the authors. DearShrink.com does not assume any liability for the contents of any material provided on the Site. Reliance on any information provided by or on the pages of DearShrink.com, or provided by other visitors to the Site is solely at your own risk. DearShrink.com assumes no liability or responsibility for damage or injury to persons or property arising from any use of any product, information, idea, or instruction contained in the materials provided to you. DearShrink.com reserves the right to change or discontinue at any time any aspect or feature of this Site.

Upon acceptance of these Terms and Conditions, DearShrink.com authorizes you to view or download a single copy of the material on this Web site solely for your personal, noncommercial use.

The contents of the DearShrink.com Site, such as text, graphics, images and other material including software
licensed by DearShrink.com to permit Users to access the DearShrink.com Site ("Content"), are protected by copyright under both United States and foreign laws, and title to the Content shall not pass to you or any other User. Unauthorized use of the Content may violate copyright, trademark, and other laws. None of the Content may be reverse-engineered, disassembled, decompiled, reproduced, transcribed, stored in a retrieval system, translated into any language or computer language, re-transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photoreproduction, recordation or otherwise), resold or redistributed without the prior written consent of DearShrink.com, except that you may reproduce limited excerpts of the data for personal use only, provided that each such copy contains a copyright notice as follows:

For information obtained from DearShrink.com's licensors, you are solely responsible for compliance with any copyright, trademark and other proprietary rights and restrictions and are referred to the publication data appearing in bibliographic citations, as well as to the copyright notices appearing in the original publications.

You may not sell or modify the Content or reproduce, display, publicly perform, distribute or otherwise use the Content in any way for any public or commercial purpose. The use of the Content on any other Web site or in a networked computer environment for any purpose is expressly prohibited, however, you may provide HTML hyperlinks from your Web site to this Site.

Such link(s) to any page or any portion of any page or any frame on this Site shall not be framed or otherwise positioned on a page in any manner that could be interpreted as a parody or derogatation of any part of the Site or that might otherwise modify or alter the focus, scope, intent, or meaning of the DearShrink.com Mission or Site.

Content is subject to change without notice at the editorial discretion of DearShrink.com. If you violate any of these Terms and Conditions, your permission to use the Content automatically terminates and you must immediately destroy any copies you have made of any portion of the Content.

The Content comes from sources believed to be accurate, but may contain inaccuracies or errors. DearShrink.com makes no representations about the results to be obtained from using or relying upon the DearShrink.com Site or the Content. The use of the DearShrink.com Site and the Content is at your own risk.

THE DEARSHRINK.COM SITE AND THE CONTENT ARE PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS" BASIS WITHOUT ANY WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND. DEARSHRINK.COM, ITS LICENSORS, ITS SUPPLIERS, AND ITS CONTENT PROVIDERS, TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, STATUTORY OR OTHERWISE, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, NON-INFRINGEMENT OF THIRD PARTIES' RIGHTS, AND FITNESS FOR PARTICULAR PURPOSE. DEARSHRINK.COM, ITS LICENSORS, ITS SUPPLIERS, AND ITS CONTENT PROVIDERS MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES ABOUT THE ACCURACY, RELIABILITY, COMPLETENESS, CURRENTNESS OR TIMELINESS OF THE CONTENT, SOFTWARE, TEXT, GRAPHICS, LINKS, OR COMMUNICATIONS PROVIDED ON OR THROUGH THE USE OF THE DEARSHRINK.COM SITE OR DEARSHRINK.COM. DEARSHRINK.COM, ITS LICENSORS, ITS SUPPLIERS, AND ITS CONTENT PROVIDERS DO NOT MAKE ANY WARRANTY THAT THE CONTENT CONTAINED ON THE DEARSHRINK.COM SITE SATISFIES GOVERNMENT REGULATIONS REQUIRING DISCLOSURE OF INFORMATION ON PRESCRIPTION DRUG PRODUCTS.

IN NO EVENT SHALL DEARSHRINK.COM, ITS LICENSORS, ITS SUPPLIERS, ITS CONTENT PROVIDERS OR ANY THIRD PARTIES MENTIONED AT THE DEARSHRINK.COM SITE BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER (INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, INCIDENTAL AND CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, LOST PROFITS, OR DAMAGES RESULTING FROM LOST DATA OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) RESULTING FROM THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE DEARSHRINK.COM SITE OR THE CONTENT WHETHER BASED ON WARRANTY, CONTRACT, TORT OR ANY OTHER LEGAL THEORY, AND WHETHER OR NOT DEARSHRINK.COM IS ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. DEARSHRINK.COM SHALL BE LIABLE TO YOU ONLY FOR GROSS NEGLIGENCE OR WILLFUL MISCONDUCT AND ONLY TO THE EXTENT OF ACTUAL DAMAGES INCURRED BY YOU, NOT TO EXCEED US $100.00 (ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS). REMEDIES UNDER THIS AGREEMENT ARE EXCLUSIVE AND ARE LIMITED TO THOSE EXPRESSLY PROVIDED FOR IN THIS AGREEMENT.

a. General. DearShrink.com recognizes the premium you place on privacy protection on the Internet. DearShrink.com does not collect personally identifiable information about DearShrink.com users ("Users") except when such individuals specifically provide such information on a voluntary basis. A User's access to and use of the DearShrink.com Site or services constitute information voluntarily given by the User.

b. User Responsibility and Disclosures Related to Purchasing Consultation Services from Ron Sterling, M.D. and Credit Card Account Statements Related to Such Purchases. For a user who is considering the purchase of e-mail, online chat, or telephone consultation from and with Ron Sterling, M.D., DearShrink.com highly recommends that such user use or establish an e-mail address at which the user will be comfortable with receiving and sending confidential communications. For further information about secure and more independent e-mail address options, please go to the Site's E-Mail Options Page.

If a purchaser fills in an e-mail address at one of the credit card charge processing forms on the Site for the purpose of receiving a receipt by e-mail for purchases made at DearShrink.com, it is highly recommended that such receipt(s) be sent to a user's e-mail address at which the user feels comfortable with such disclosure of service(s) purchased. As noted below, DearShrink.com cannot and does not take responsibility for misdirected or mis-addressed e-mail or for disclosures made by a user with respect to a user's visits to the Site or a user's purchase of services offered at the Site. Users are responsible for insuring that e-mail addresses are correct before purchasing services or sending e-mails that may contain or pertain to personal or confidential information. For further reminders about e-mail options, please go to the Site's E-Mail Options Page.

c. DearShrink.com's and Ron Sterling, M.D.'s Responsibilities and Procedures With Respect to Record Keeping and Information Disclosure Pursuant to the Provision of Purchased Consultation Services. Only Ron Sterling, M.D., is authorized to read and only Ron Sterling, M.D., reads e-mail sent to DearShrink.com, whether through a purchase of services or otherwise.

Only Ron Sterling, M.D., participates in online chat conversations purchased by users and no observer, whatsoever, is authorized to observe such chat conversations at Dr. Sterling's office or at any other site, unless the purchaser of such services gives such permission to third-parties to observe such online chat conversations at their computer terminal or some other computer display screen.

Only Ron Sterling, M.D., participates in telephone conversations purchased by users and no other person is authorized to listen to such conversations and no recording of such conversation is made without the express consent of all parties to the conversation. All such purchased telephone consultations will take place on a "wired" phone line belonging to Ron Sterling, M.D., unless the purchaser expressly consents to some other arrangement. It is recommended that user's who purchase telephone consultations from Dr. Sterling utilize a "wired" phone, rather than a wireless or cordless phone system.

Dr. Sterling does, however, printout all e-mail and all online chat conversations and stores them in a locked file in a secure place, as is required by the record-keeping laws of the State of Washington. No personal records or other personal information of any kind, whatsoever, kept by Ron Sterling, M.D., pursuant to relevant record keeping laws will be disclosed or released to any third-party unless a witnessed written Consent to Release Information is signed by the relevant purchaser of services or the said records are ordered to be released or disclosed by a court of competent jurisdiction.

No content, information, data, or identities, whatsoever, disclosed pursuant to purchased services from Ron Sterling, M.D., by way of purchased e-mail, online chat, telephone, or in-person consultation will be used in any way, whatsoever, for the purpose of providing content on the DearShrink.com Site. Any relationship of any issues discussed or any similarity that may occur between any content posted on the Site and the content of any purchased service from Ron Sterling, M.D., is purely coincidental.

d. User Responsibility for Queries Related to Advice Columns and Other Public Postings on the Site. Although DearShrink.com will not post a User's name or IP address in responding to any query, and although DearShrink.com will use its best efforts to insure that any public posting of an answer to a query will contain no information that could conceivably link a reader or any person identified in a reader's communication to said answer, the User submitting any query (other than queries that are the result of purchased e-mail, online chat or telephone consultations from Dr. Sterling) to DearShrink.com by e-mail or by any other method of communication, whatsoever, shall be solely responsible for taking steps to conceal any personal information in the text of the query which may reveal the User's identity. Any query or other communication which a user personally posts on the DearShrink.com Site is considered to be non-confidential. DearShrink.com cannot take responsibility for misdirected or mis-addressed e-mail attempted to be sent to DearShrink.com or e-mail whose Internet routing has been tampered with prior to its arrival at the DearShrink.com mailbox. In addition, although DearShrink.com uses a password to protect access to its e-mail, given the vulnerabilities of Web sites and Internet e-mail to hacking, DearShrink.com cannot completely assure all users, readers or writers that its e-mail will not or cannot be "hacked" and otherwise illegally intercepted or read.

e. User Submissions for Advice Columns and Other Postings on the Site.

(i) Only Users eighteen (18) years old and older may submit a query or other communication to DearShrink.com for consideration as posted questions and answers on the Site.

(ii) Except as described herein, any query or other communication which you personally post on the DearShrink.com Site is considered to be non-confidential. You agree that you will not upload or transmit any communications that infringe any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright or other proprietary rights of any party. By submitting communications to any part of this Site, you automatically grant and/or warrant that the owner of such Content has expressly granted DearShrink.com a royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, world-wide nonexclusive license to use, reproduce, create derivative works from, modify, publish, edit, translate, distribute, perform, and display the communication alone or as part of other works in any form, media, or technology whether now known or hereafter developed, and to sublicense such rights through multiple tiers of sublicenses.

(iii) Although DearShrink.com will not post a User's name or IP address in responding to a query, the User submitting a query to the Site shall be solely responsible for taking steps to conceal any personal information in the text of the query which may reveal the User's identity.

(iv) Queries or communications posted to the Site are subject to editing by DearShrink.com. DearShrink.com's determination as to which queries shall be answered by its professionals shall be final and DearShrink.com is not obligated to and shall not be required to respond to or address every query posted to the Site or e-mailed to DearShrink.com. Responses to any queries shall be posted on the Site and no responses shall be sent to the User who originally submitted such query. DearShrink.com shall not provide such User with any notice that the User's query has been answered and posted to the Site.

(v) All responses to queries posted on the Site by DearShrink.com shall constitute Content and shall be subject to the all terms and conditions contained herein, including, but not limited to, the provisions relating to the disclaimer, indemnity, and limitation of liability.

f. IP Addresses, Cookies, Registration. DearShrink.com currently collects no IP address information, and places no cookies on a user's computer. No personal information record keeping device of any kind is placed on user computers and DearShrink.com does not require registration. Any information you disclose to DearShrink.com is voluntary.

g. External Links. In order to provide visitors with greater value, DearShrink.com may provide links to various third party Web sites. However, even if a third-party affiliation exists between DearShrink.com and that destination site, DearShrink.com exercises no authority over linked sites, each of which maintains independent privacy and data collection policies and procedures. DearShrink.com assumes no responsibility or liability for these independent methods or actions and is not responsible for the independent policies or procedures of destination sites. Similarly, DearShrink.com cannot take responsibility for the privacy initiatives or the content of such Web sites. These destination links are provided only for your convenience, and as such, you access them at your own risk.

h. Unilateral Right to Modify Privacy Policy. DearShrink.com reserves the right to modify the terms and conditions of its Terms and Conditions of Use and Privacy Policy at any time, whatsoever, and such modifications shall be effective immediately upon the posting of such modified terms and conditions on the DearShrink.com Web site. You agree to review this Privacy Policy and the Terms and Conditions of Use periodically to be aware of such modifications and your continued access or use of the DearShrink.com Site shall be legal evidence of your conclusive acceptance of the Terms and Conditions of Use and this Privacy Policy as it appears at the time of your access or use of DearShrink.com.

The DearShrink.com Site contains links to third party Web sites. These links are provided solely as a convenience to you and not as an endorsement by DearShrink.com of the content on such third-party Web sites. DearShrink.com is not responsible for the content of linked third-party Web sites and does not make any representations regarding the content or accuracy of materials on such third-party Web sites. If you decide to access linked third-party Web sites, you do so at your own risk. Your use of third-party Web sites is subject to the Terms and Conditions of use for such sites.

In the event DearShrink.com elects to include advertisements by third parties on the DearShrink.com Site, these advertisements may contain links to other Web sites. Unless otherwise specifically stated on the Site, DearShrink.com does not endorse any product or make any representation regarding the content or accuracy of any materials contained in, or linked to, any advertisement on the DearShrink.com Site.

You agree to defend, indemnify and hold harmless DearShrink.com, its officers, directors, employees, agents, licensors, suppliers and content providers, from and against any claims, actions or demands, liabilities and settlements including without limitation, legal and accounting fees, resulting from, arising out of or related to, or alleged to result from, arise from, or relate to, your use of the Content or the Site. DearShrink.com shall provide notice to you promptly of any such claim, suit, or proceeding and shall reasonably cooperate with you, at your expense, in your defense of any such claim, suit or proceeding.

DearShrink.com is based in Seattle, Washington, in the United States of America. DearShrink.com makes no claims the Content is appropriate or may be downloaded outside of the United States. Access to the Content may not be legal by certain persons or in certain countries. If you access the DearShrink.com Site from outside the United States, you do so at your own risk and are responsible for compliance with the laws of your jurisdiction.

You expressly agree that exclusive jurisdiction for any dispute with DearShrink.com, or in any way relating to your use of DearShrink.com, resides in the courts of the State of Washington and you further agree and expressly consent to the exercise of personal jurisdiction in the courts of the State of Washington in connection with any such dispute including any claim involving DearShrink.com or its affiliates, subsidiaries, employees, contractors, officers, directors, telecommunication providers and content providers. These Terms and Conditions are governed by the internal substantive laws of the State of Washington, without respect to its conflict of laws principles. If any provision of these Terms and Conditions is found to be invalid by any court having competent jurisdiction, the invalidity of such provision shall not affect the validity of the remaining provisions of these Terms and Conditions, which shall remain in full force and effect. No waiver of any of these Terms and Conditions shall be deemed a further or continuing waiver of such term or condition or any other term or condition.